automated degree plan submission system -...

Automated Degree Plan Submission System

Office of Graduate Studies

http://ogsdpss.tamu.edu

The Automated Degree Plan Submission System

The Automated Degree Plan Submission System is a web based system which allows a graduate student to complete, audit, and submit his or her degree plan on-line. The student’s chair is notified by e-mail that he or she needs to go on-line to review a degree plan. If the chair approves the degree plan, the other committee members are notified by e-mail to review the degree plan. Upon approval of all committee members, the degree plan is ready to be re-viewed by a departmental representative, usually by a staff member first and then by either the department head or graduate advisor. Once the department has approved the degree plan, it is ready to be reviewed by the Office of Graduate Studies. Upon OGS approval, the student will receive and e-mail notification of approval or denial. At any step along the way the degree plan may be rejected and sent back to the student for changes. If the degree plan is rejected at any point, the approval process begins anew.

To access the system, go to http://ogsdpss.tamu.edu using Internet Explorer. We have en-countered a few problems when using other browsers.

To login to the system, students, faculty, and staff must have a Neo account. Questions re-garding the NetID or Neo account, should be directed to the help desk by emailing [email protected] or calling 845-8300. All e-mails generated by the Degree Plan Submission System are sent to the Neo account, so Faculty and Staff must regularly check their Neo ac-count or set the Neo account to forward e-mail to another preferred e-mail account.

If you would like to set your Neo e-mail account to forward mail to another e-mail address, use the following instructions:

1. Go to http://neo.tamu.edu

2. Login to your Neo account

3. Select the link for “Directory” (be sure to do this AFTER you login)

4. From your directory page, select “Edit”

5. In the third and fourth options on the edit page, select that your tamu.edu and neo.tamu.edu e-mail be forwarded and enter the forwarding e-mail address.

Visiting professors who are members of the Graduate Faculty may obtain a Neo account by submitting the Approval of Visiting Scholars form (Form 5VS) to CIS Computer Account Ser-vices, http://vpr.tamu.edu/resforms.html .

General Information

Overview of the Automated Degree Plan Submission System Sections

Student Section of DPSS

The student must initiate the process by logging into the system and creating a degree plan. Four basic steps are involved in creating the degree plan: General Information, Courses for Credit, Prerequisites, and Committee. These four sections and instructions on each are dis-cussed in more detail later in this document.

Faculty Section of DPSS

Faculty members login to the system using their Net ID and password (same as logging into their Neo account). They will be able to view the student’s degree plan and approve, disap-prove (reject), cancel, and/or comment. Once they have approved the degree plan, it goes on to the next stage. If any committee member disapproves, the degree plan is sent back to the student and the degree plan must be resubmitted after any necessary corrections have been made. To disapprove a degree plan, the faculty member must include comments, and tell the student why he or she is rejecting the degree plan. If the faculty member chooses cancel, they will exit the degree plan without having taken any action and can return later to review the de-gree plan. Comments made upon either approval or disapproval are seen only by the student, faculty, and department. OGS does not see any comments.

Department Section of DPSS

Department approval happens only after all committee members have approved the degree plan. The process follows pre-defined workflow, and is generally two-fold. The workflow can be customized and is based on degree/major combinations. The workflow can be set up to be ei-ther simultaneous or sequential. It is usually set up as sequential. To set up or change a work-flow, departmental staff should contact the Office of Graduate Studies. Generally a staff person will review the degree plan to make sure that it follows departmental policy before it goes to the faculty member who has final approval authority. The staff approver and the faculty approver have the same options as the committee members—they may approve, disapprove, cancel and/or comment.

Proxy approval

Faculty who are on file with OGS as being authorized to sign Graduate Studies documents are allowed to be Proxy Approvers. They may log in as a proxy and review degree plans on the behalf of any faculty or staff member in their department.

General Information

General Information

OGS Section of DPSS

After the degree plan has been submitted by the student, approved by the committee, and has been approved by the department (using the defined workflow), it appears in the OGS “inbox”. OGS staff will log the degree plan in as received on SIMS Screen 010 and will remove any blocks for degree plan when the degree plan is approved. OGS staff will enter the degree plan into SIMS and will process it in the same way we currently process paper copies. Based on the results of this review, OGS staff will either approve or disapprove the degree plan. An e-mail is sent to the student informing them of the result of the OGS review. No hard copies are sent through the mail. Departments can print a final approved copy from the history link. Changes made to the degree plan at a later date by petition will not be reflected in this system. You should use SIMS to view the most up to date degree plan. As of right now, we do not have a plan in place to archive or delete degree plans. Please know, however, that it is a possibility that degree plans will eventually be deleted from this system, so it is imperative that copies are printed or saved to your computer.

Student Information

Students:

1. Go to https://ogsdpss.tamu.edu and select “Students.”

Click Here

2. Login using your NetID. If you do not have a NetID, select “Activate your NetID.” Or, if you do not remember your NetID, contact the CIS Help Desk at (979) 845-8300.

Student Information

3. Select “Create a new degree plan.”

4. On the Degree Plan page, select “Add” and follow steps 1-4 to complete an electronic de-gree plan.

Student Information

Click Here

Click Here

5. Step 1 on the Degree Plan Screen asks for General Information. You must fill in all of the fields before clicking continue. Please note that the name fields are automatically filled in based on your net ID when you log in. These fields cannot be changed.

6. Step 2 allows you to add courses to your degree plan. Once the correct course is chosen, click Add Course. Continue adding courses in this manner until all of the courses that you want to appear on your degree plan have been added. You are not required to fill in the Fi-nal Grade, Year Taken or Semester Taken fields, but you may do so for planning purposes.

Joe Aggie

Student Information

For Special Topics courses, you will need to choose the 689 that appears in the course list-ing, and then type the course name in the blank that appears. You will also need to type the semester and year taken, even if it is to be taken in the future. If you are not sure when it will be taken, use your best guess. It is okay if it ends up being taken in a different semes-ter.

7. Step 3 allows you to add any Prerequisite Courses required by your department or commit-tee. You may skip this step if you do not have any prerequisites to list.

Student Information

8. Step 4 allows you to add committee members. First, select the role the committee member will serve, either “Chair” or “Member”. If you have co-chairs, choose “Chair” as the role for each co-chair.

Second, choose the faculty member’s name from the list of approved graduate faculty. This listing is updated every night.

Hint: Type the first let-ter of the last name of the committee member

to avoid having to scroll through the entire list.

Student Information

Select “Add Member” to add this person to your committee. For special appointments, your department must submit Personal Record Form. When all committee members have been added, select “Finish”.

Student Information

Hint: Once you have chosen the name of the faculty member, their

graduate faculty membership type and departmental affiliation(s) will appear. Verify that you have selected the ap-propriate person using this information.

Aggie, Professor

Click Here

9. The next section allows you to view, edit, delete, audit or release a draft of the degree plan that you have created, and shows the status of your degree plan. You must audit the de-gree plan before it can be submitted. Select “Audit” on the Degree Plan page. Releasing a draft is a different process than submitting the degree plan for approval! If you choose to release a draft of your degree plan to the committee for their input, you must notify the members that the draft degree plan is available for review. The draft degree plan must be retracted before you can submit it for the approval process.

10. The Audit checks the degree plan against a set of rules outlined in the Graduate Catalog for degree requirements and limitations. The student is notified if any rule violations occur. If the audit shows a “Violation”, the student must correct the degree plan and perform an-other audit. If the audit shows a “Warning”, the student can correct the degree plan or opt to request an exception by completing a petition that will be submitted as part of the degree plan, prior to performing another audit. Petitions will be reviewed by OGS on a case by case basis.

Hint: This screen also shows the status of your degree plan.

NEW = A new degree plan has been created, but not audited or submitted

AU1 = A degree plan has been created and audited, but not submitted.

INC = The degree plan that was created and audited did not pass audit.

DRA = A draft degree plan has been released for viewing by the committee. The student must retract the draft in order to continue.

COM = The degree plan has been submitted, and is awaiting committee approval.

DEP = The degree plan has been approved by the committee and is now awaiting departmental approval.

OGS = The department has approved the degree plan, and it is now waiting for OGS review

STU = The degree plan has been rejected and by a committee member, the department, or OGS and has been returned to the student.

Click Here

Student Information

Student Information

When you are ready to submit the degree plan, return to the Degree Plan page and select “Submit.” The degree plan will be sent to your committee members, department head, and the Office of Graduate Studies for approval.

Click Here to return to the Degree Plan Page

Click Here to revise degree

plan

Click Here to Submit the

Degree Plan

Student Information

Committee Information

Committee

1. Go to https://ogsdpss.tamu.edu and select “Faculty.”


Click Here



4. After reviewing the degree plan, scroll to the bottom of the webpage and select “Approve” or “Disapprove.” If the degree plan is not approved, a reason must be provided for the stu-dent in the Comments box.

3. Select the link for the degree plan you wish to review. The student’s degree plan will ap-pear and you may view it.

Student names will appear here with links.

Joe Aggie

Joe-

Joe Aggie

[email protected]


Department Information

Staff and Departmental Approvers

1. Go to https://ogsdpss.tamu.edu and select “Faculty.”


Click Here


4. After reviewing the degree plan, scroll to the bottom of the webpage and select “Approve” or “Disapprove.” If the degree plan is not approved, a reason must be provided for the stu-dent in the Comments box.

3. Select the link for the degree plan you wish to review. The student’s degree plan will ap-pear and you may view it.

Student names will appear here with links.


Joe Aggie

[email protected]

Joe Aggie

[email protected]


Proxy Approvers

Proxy Approvers

Faculty whose signatures appear on the Office of Graduate Studies Authorized Signature Sheets are automatically entered by OGS as “Proxy Approvers”. Proxy approvers may log in and approve degree plans in the place of any faculty member in their department, including the designated departmental approver and the staff approver. Proxy approvers will log in as shown in the previous section, but once logged in will click on Proxy Review at the top of the screen.

They will then choose the degree plan from the appropriate section, and will need to identity the person they are approving for.

Click Here for Proxy

Review

Choose the name of the person you are approving for here.

Proxy Approvers

FAQ’s

Student Section

Q: Why is the faculty member that I want to add to my committee not listed here?

A: The faculty member may not be listed for one of two reasons. Either the faculty member does not have a UIN in the data base maintained by the Office of Graduate Studies, or the faculty member is not a member of the Graduate Faculty. Call the Office of Graduate Studies for more information.

Q: How do I add a Special Appointment to my on-line degree plan?

A: Submit a hard copy of the Graduate Faculty Personal Record form along with a copy of the special appointment’s vita to the Office of Graduate Studies after your on-line degree plan has been ap-proved. We will then add the special appointment to your committee.

Q: I keep getting a “Run Time Error”. What do I do?

A: Contact the Office of Graduate Studies at 845-3631. We will have the system rebooted.

Q: If my degree plan has been disapproved by a committee member, do I have to start all over?

A: You should log in and edit your saved degree plan based on suggestions by the committee member or department. Audit the degree plan again, and submit it again. It will have to go through the ap-proval process again.

Q: I submitted my degree plan a month ago and have not heard anything. How do I know if it has been approved?

A: You should receive an e-mail once the degree plan has been approved or disapproved. You may log into the system to view the status of your degree plan. See the hint on page 14 for more infor-mation.

Department Section

Q: How do I see a degree plan that has already been approved?

A: Log into the system and choose the “History” link near the top of the page.

Q: A student submitted a degree plan that does not meet our departmental requirements. Why did it pass audit?

A: The system audit rules are based on University-wide rules that are outlined in the catalog. Because of the large number of programs, we are not able to build departmental rules into the system.

FAQ’s

Q: My student has submitted a degree plan, but it has not come to me. How do I check the status?

A: If you are an authorized departmental approver, you can select “All DPSS Plans” near the top of the page to see all degree plans submitted for your department. You can then open the individual de-gree plan to see who has approved or disapproved it. If you are not an authorized departmental ap-prover, you should contact someone who is.

Q: How do I set up or change a workflow for my department?

A: Contact the Office of Graduate Studies at 845-3631.

Q: I keep getting a “Run Time Error”. How do I correct this?

A: Contact the Office of Graduate Studies at 845-3631. We will have the system rebooted.

Q: One of our graduate faculty members is a visiting professor without a Neo account. How can they use the degree plan submission system?

A: Faculty who are visiting professors and will serve on graduate advisory committees may obtain a Neo account. The department sends a memo to CIS Computing Account Services (845-7223) re-questing that a Neo account be created for the professor. The request should include the reason that a Neo account is needed; the professor will serve on Graduate Advisory Committees and must have a neo account to use an online Office of Graduate Studies database. Attach to the request a copy of the Graduate Faculty Personal Record form approved by the Dean of Graduate Studies. If the professor does not yet have a UIN, also provide a photocopy of their driver’s license.

FAQ’s

Office of Graduate Studies 302 Jack K. Williams Administration Bldg. College Station, TX 77843-1113

Phone: 979-845-3631 Fax: 979-845-1596 Email: [email protected]

Office of Graduate Studies

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